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DEBRE TABOR UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF TECHNOLOGY
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

Network and System Administration

Slides by: Wondifraw Manaye

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CHAPTER-ONE

Network and System Administration

 Questions
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 Define network/system administration?

 What is the role of network and system administrator?
 How does network administration work in practice?
 list some tasks of network administrator
 What are goals of system/network administration?
 What are the challenges of system/network administration?
 Explain the phrase “style of network/system administration”
 What is a System?
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 is a set of interrelated components that work together to achieve a specific

purpose.
 It is a collection of elements or components that are organized for a
common purpose.
 System administration is management of system.
 Like
 planning

 Installing

 maintaining computer systems of one company.

 Cont’d …
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 The importance of system administration is now a days becomes a mission critical position in
more and more organizations as computers become more and more pervasive in business.
 The administrator has to understand
 systems that he is responsible for
the people who use them
the nature of the business that they are used for
 A key skill in administration is planning, because at the rate that systems are being created,
overhauled (repaired), and expanded, trying to improvise (create) and design a network
 What Is Network And Network
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Administration?
What is network ?
 A network consists of two or more computers that are linked in order to share resources

(like printers)
 The computers on a network may be linked through cables or wirelessly

 Two very common types of networks include:

LAN
WAN
 What is Network Administration

 Network administration is the art of connecting people throughout the world, (and

incidentally connecting their computers) to get them together for many purpose.
 Cont’d …
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 Network administration is difficult task because

 The administrator's responsibilities often involve
 network design
 management
 troubleshooting
 backup and storage
 documentation
 security and virus prevention
 as well as managing users
 Role of System Administrator and Network
Administrator
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In small organization the roles of system and network admins is merged
together. but they have specification in large organization.
Role of System Administrator
 Install , configure, update and maintain/debugging an operating system

and repaired it for security

 Performance change.
 Made sure the power and air conditioning are working in server room.
 Kept backup in the case of anything went wrong.
 Cont’d …
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 Setup the firewall and setup system security policy.

 Adding ,removing and updating user account information.
 Documentation the system configuration.
 Analysis system logs.
 Apache and MySQL (vertigo) administration.
 Manage storage of network and NFS server.
 Monitor system in your data center (CPU, network I/O, disk I/O,
application health).
 Cont’d …
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 But even some one is an administrator he or she will not do

 Never do something you cannot undo.
 Never stop learning b/c technology rapidly changes
 Shall be use less privilege account b/c mistakes will be less drastic
 Junior System admin must know
 How a system is configured
 What patches have been applied
 What service the system need/provides
 Role of Network Administrator
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 As a network administrator, the tasks generally fall into the following areas:
Planning and designing the network
Setting up the network
Maintaining the network
Expanding the network
 Cont’d …
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Designing the Network

 The first phase in the life cycle of a network involves creating its design
 Performed by a senior network architect: an experienced network administrator familiar
with both network software and hardware.
 Designing a network involves making decisions about the type of network that best suits
the needs of your organization.
Setting up the Network
 It involves setting up and configuring the network.
 This consists of installing the hardware that makes up the physical part of the network,
and configuring the files or databases, hosts, routers, and network configuration servers.
 Cont’d …
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Maintaining the Network

 The third phase of network administration consists of ongoing tasks that typically
constitute the bulk of the administrators responsibilities.
 They might include:
Adding new host machines to the network
Administering network security
Administering network services, such as NFSTM services, name
services, and electronic mail
Troubleshooting network problems
 Cont’d …
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Expanding the Network

 Several options are available for expanding your network:
 Setting up a new network and connecting it to the existing network using
a machine functioning as a router, thus creating an internetwork
 Configuring machines in users' homes or in remote office sites and
enabling these machines to connect over telephone lines to your network
 Cont’d …
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 Connecting your network to the Internet, thus enabling users on your

network to retrieve information from other systems throughout the world
 The network administrator is responsible for planning, designing,
installing, and evaluating networks and workstations.
 Very often the administrator is also involved in researching purchasing
information on hardware and software acquisitions
 Cont’d …
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 The Network Administrator is typically a mid to senior level of technical/network

staff in an organization and is not typically involved with direct user support.
 The Network Administrator will concentrate on the overall health of the network,
server deployment, security, ensuring network connectivity throughout and
company's LAN/WAN infrastructure, and all other technical considerations at the
network level of an organizations technical hierarchy.
 Cont’d …
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 Network Administrators are considered Tier 3 support personnel that only

work on break/fix issues that could not be resolved at the Tier1 (helpdesk) or
Tier 2 (desktop/network technician) levels.
 The actual role of the Network Administrator will vary from company to
company,
 But
 such as usually includes tasks such as network address

assignment,
 assignment of routing protocols and routing table configuration
 Cont’d …
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as well as configuration of authentication and authorization – directory services.

It often includes
maintenance of network facilities in individual machines,
drivers and settings of personal computers as well as printers and such.
It sometimes also includes maintenance of certain network servers:

file servers,
VPN gateways,

intrusion detection systems, etc.

 Generally the Network admin tasks:
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 Task 1: Design, install and evaluate network

 Task 2: Perform and manage regular backups
 Task 3: Provide technical documentation
 Task 4: Manage users and provide user support
 Task 5: Monitoring and troubleshooting assistance
 Task 6: Security management and virus prevention
 the role of System and Network Admin is:
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 Security Management
 Performance Management
 Planning for Growth
 Fault Management and Recovery
 Account/User Management
 Networked Application Support
 How to be a Sys/Net Admin
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 Learn Operating System basics e.g. Unix

 Learn shell utilities and script programming
 Learn how to Install and Configure OS and network tools
 Learn DNS, DHCP, Samba, Proxy servers
 Learn TCP/IP networking protocol , remote traffic monitoring tool
 Learn NFS and NIS- Network Information Service (DB) (or equivalent…)
 Learn about system tuning and accounting
 Style of Network and System Administration
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 Fire-Fighting:
 Managing by responding to situations when they happen (Reactive)
 Preventative management
 Monitor network and make repairs and changes before problems appear (Proactive)

 These are two opposite extremes (Most real managers combine both).
Fire-Fighting
 Investigate the Fault or Problem

 Isolate the problem and identify/define it

 Use tests and tools to diagnose the problem
 Solve the problem and document the solution
 Prioritize multiple problems
 Preventative Management Techniques
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Capacity Planning

Simulation and Testing

load generators

Benchmarks (ምልክት)

Performance Monitors and System Tuning

Network analysis and modelling

Load balancing

Hardware upgrades
 The most challenge of System and Network Admin are:
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 Responding to copyright infringement requests

 What happens when an outside party notifies you that copyrighted material has been
found on your network? How do you quickly find the user that’s responsible to
ensure that any such material is removed?

 Investigating the network activity of an individual student or staff member

 What happens when an individual user has clicked on a link within their email that
causes the download of malware and the launch of thousands of spam emails?
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 How do you find and quickly investigate the network activity of a single
user?
 Quickly identifying viruses and worms on the network
 Viruses and worms are, unfortunately, a fact of life for networks –
especially campus networks. How can you greatly reduce the time you
spend finding, isolating and removing viruses and worms?
 Determining why applications are slowing down
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 Dealing with calls and complaints when key applications start to slow down
is not fun. How can campus network administrators quickly find the cause
of the application slowdown?
 Detecting rogue(fraud) systems on the network
 There are likely no more diverse hardware environment than colleges,
universities and higher-education institutes. How do campus network
managers and administrators better identify and isolate rogue systems on
their network?
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THANK YOU
Q &A
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